The People's Republic of Fub

A few years ago, my in-laws gifted me with a small Japanese maple tree. We kept it in a pot for a year (or maybe two?) and kept the tree indoors during winter. But then it had grown enough that it could be put in the ‘full ground’ in the garden.
We used bits of electrical wire (brown, visible in this photo) to guide the branches to spread out instead of growing upwards, and that worked quite well.
Normally, the leaves are a reddish-brown colour, but what with the fall, my trees has really intensely red leaves! I love it.

Indeed, the leaves get so intensely red! We once visited a temple in Japan that was situated against a mountain with maples, and they upped their entrance fees by 100 yen starting each November 1st, because then the maples would be spectacular when viewed from their garden. Apparently, that drew quite the crowds, and it's not hard to imagine why!